August 2011Monthly Archives

I’m submitting a memo to my bosses at Rolling Stone this morning, asking for permission to skip all coverage of the Republican primary season from this point forward. Why? Because Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann have just summed up the entire Republican storyline with perfect precision, through their respective responses to Hurricane Irene. There’s really not much left for any pundit to add, after this weekend’s quips.

Michele Bachmann says Hurricane Irene is God’s way of telling Washington that it is spending too much.

For his part, Ron Paul says hurricane relief isn’t the responsibility of the state and we should stop using tax dollars to rescue people. Apparently we should go back to our year-1900 disaster policies, which included watching 6,000 people die in a hurricane that hit Galveston, Texas.

What else does anyone need to hear? There are two powerful wings of the Republican Party heading into 2012, and these two comments sum them up perfectly.

There’s plenty of other juicy tidbits to gawk at in the post, including this screenshot of the commands with an overlay of how often users actually click.

Basically, 50% of the buttons that Microsoft proudly attributes to its ‘streamlined’ interface won’t ever be used by Windows users — and that’s according to Microsoft’s own research.

We’re sure that Jony Ive is proud.

Now, we don’t know who will win next year’s presidential election. But the odds are that one of these years the world’s greatest nation will find itself ruled by a party that is aggressively anti-science, indeed anti-knowledge. And, in a time of severe challenges — environmental, economic, and more — that’s a terrifying prospect.

WASHINGTON – As Hurricane Irene barrels her way toward the mid-Atlantic and up the East Coast, members of The Old Guard continue their vigilance at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

While on duty the Tomb Sentinel crosses a 63-foot rubber surfaced walkway in exactly 21 steps. He then faces the Tomb for 21 seconds, turns again, and pauses an additional 21 seconds before retracing his steps.

The 21 is symbolic of the highest salute according to dignitaries in military and state ceremonies.

Members of The Old Guard have guarded the Tomb every second, of every day regardless of weather or holidays since April 6, 1948.

Bill Keller, The New York Times outgoing executive editor, stirred the pot this morning with a column raising concerns about the religious allegiances of the Republican presidential candidates. Whether it’s Rick Perry’s affiliation with “Dominionists” or Michele Bachmann’s “literal” interpretation of the Bible, he’d like the candidates to open up about how exactly their religious beliefs will guide their actions in office. “I care a lot if a candidate is going to be a Trojan horse for a sect that believes it has divine instructions on how we should be governed.” Flagging some specific candidates, he notes that “Rick Perry, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum are all affiliated with fervid subsets of evangelical Christianity, which has raised concerns about their respect for the separation of church and state, not to mention the separation of fact and fiction.”

Artist Andrew Kolb turned David Bowie’s classic scifi song, Space Oddity, into a children’s book. For himself, anyway. I’m assuming that Kolb, who was inspired by the song’s strong storyline and imagery, didn’t want to go through the hassle of getting the rights to the lyrics and so he isn’t selling copies.

But wait!

He has published the book on his website for free! You can click here to download it, or enjoy the book below. (you should download it, as the PDF images are way bigger).